danko balog portfolio

education2004 - 2011 Faculty of Architecture, University of Zagreb

Master’s degree in Architecture and Urban Planning

2003 - 2004 Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, University of Zagreb

completed 1st year of general engineering studies

1999 - 2003 Tin Ujevic Gymnasium, Kutina, Croatia

1984, July 18th born in Kutina, Croatia

computer skillsAutoCAD, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, Corel PhotoPaint

Solidworks, Archicad, Sketch Up, Rhinoceros, MS Office

languagesEnglish excellent; German fair; Italian basic

other skills model making, CNC machine operation, hardware maintainance, driver’s licence

employment 2011 - ongoing XYZ arhitektura, Zagreb, Croatia

full-time employee

2010 - 2011 Faculty of Architecture, Zagreb, Croatia

model workshop assistant

2008 - 2011 XYZ arhitektura, Zagreb, Croatia

competition collaboration, model building

2010 Studio UP, Zagreb, Croatia

project preparation, drafting

2010 hpnj+, Zagreb, Croatia

competition collaboration, model building, exhibition preparation

2008 de Architekten Cie., Zagreb, Croatia

model building

independent work2012 Badel Blok, international competition

team Tamara Baresic, Luka Anic, Srdan Gajic

2012 NT Family House

Danko Balog

bus station kutinadiploma project 2011

After organizing a series of ambitious architectural competitions for a range of public buildings, the city of Kutina failed to set up an equally ambitious realisation of awarded projects. Due to lack of funding and bad management, projects were cancelled, sizes reduced, competitions anulled.One of the results was a desperate new situation of the bus station and city market site.

This project attempted to salvage what was left of the space, after the building of two large supermarkets and a badly designed city market was finished, and the old bus station demolished.

The area necessary for traffic circulation was optimized and thus reduced to save a portion of the already small site, to be articulated as urban space, a background for the market, whose marginal position and size denounced its important role within the town.

The station itself is organised along a tall and narrow spine, representing a barrier, a buffer zone, a sort of a new city wall, an entrance to the city. On one side of the wall is the traffic, the road leading away, and on the other is the urban space.

Like makeshift lean-ons on historic city walls, the programmatic content of the station is placed in lower irregular spaces on both sides of the spine. This creates an undulating open space facing the market, supplementing what is supposed to be a proper piazza.

The irregular shape is also an attempt to contradict surrounding big-box type supermarket buildings

The station building tries to allow maximum permeability and numerous entry-points, but always trying to keep a fortificationess about itself.

Being in fact a quite small building, like a small dog, it is sharp and edgy.

sports centre vrbani

school project

3rd year, 2008

tradesmen guild centre zagrebcompetition project 2010with XYZ arhitekturafifth prize

The large and diverse competition brief is organised into multiple volumes, then grouped into four selfcontained vertical structures, which then form a single monovolume.

Between the closely packed programmatic groupes, gaps are left free. These are informal green meeting spaces, places outside the programme, which constitute an internal driveshaft of the project. An enclosed urbanity is formed to compensate for the remoteness and disurbanity of the site.

unit multiplication

school project

1st year, 2005

orphanage zagrebschool project 5th year 2009

To get the maximum out of the desperate site loca-ted between a busy road, a multi-track railroad and an ex industrial site, the or-phanage is concentrated in a small tower, maximaizing the children's yard space and giving the orphanage a clear physical presence.

The tower is built up out of two-floor L-units which are combined in a sort of moe-bius system, that allows the childern to find numerous paths through their house. While the outer facade gives them a perspective on the city, the inner creates a sen-se of community.

bosanka urban plan dubrovnik

competition project 2011

with XYZ arhitektura

third prize

badel block zagrebcompetition project 2012with tamara baresic, luka anic, srdan gajic

Largeness

The large demanded gross built area quoted in the competition brief, 65 000 m2, instils initial reproach. However, its justification can be found, apart from the apparent economical argument, in the term of density. A dense city is a live, vibrant city. Multiplicity of people, events, and spaces makes a city. And high quality density is what Zagreb lacks.

A large area invokes a large building, but also a multitude of smaller ones. A big building is always a focal point, a marker, a pole. Small buildings account for human scale and spatial richness.

Open space

In establishing a new subcentre, an open public space is required, offering a multitude of connections. One must be able to walk around, explore, leave a complex tracery of paths behind.

Among public open spaces, a park cannot be beaten. A small forest, the oppo-site of a city. A denial of a city within a city, a penance of greenery for the sin of brick and mortar. A union dreamed of, a park within a block.

Block

By definition, a block closes itself in. Whatever is behind the perimeter, is secluded and can be reached only by cutting through the perimeter. Seclusion, however, leads to particularisation of spaces rather than integration and the latter is what we seek. The perimeter building of 19th century block is there-fore unfit for our purpose. And yet, the overall Lower city structure requires of us to retain the integrity of the Badel block, already tested by its marginal position in the grid.

A big building, small buildings, a park and a block

And so, we remember Friedman, Isozaki, Archigram, Tschumi. We prepare the site and divide it into a 16 x 16 metre grid. Through this grid, we build up the full site area, completing the unbuilt block. We make this building a steel spa-ce-frame grid and raise it to the top floor level of the existing block structure. The height of the space beneath the grid is equal to the height of the existing buildings. The block is closed with an invisible facade. From the raised grid, we extrude small sky- and ground-scrapers. Leaving holes in the raised grid unfilled, we make the space underneath it a park. The park makes for a large open public space covered partially with a large roof, networked by a system of paths linking the wider area. Ground-scraper landings make for small sunken public plazas. The former distillery building becomes a focal point of the park, a pavilion. Heritage protected industrial facades remain as pseudoarchaeologi-cal relics of a bygone industrial phase, and act as gateways to the park. A big building, small buildings, a park and, all together, a block.

gracani urban plan

project exhibition 2010

project by

helena paver njiric

elementary school sredisceschool project 3rd year, 2007

Located in a CIAM-type neighbourhood of Zagreb,

the project attempts to offer a compensation

for the lack of enclosed public space in the area.

The ground floor level encloses a large multifunctional

space that can act as a neighbourhood activity hall

on days when the school is out.

The simple prefabricated repetetive construction system

tries to ensure an economic justification for the enlarged

floor area, in comparison to the educational standard.

Although placed above ground, all lower grade

and some higher grade classrooms have an open

air courtyard, matching their floor area.

ferry passanger terminal zadar

school project 2011

with josipa baricevic

construction detail

eastern shoreline splitcompetition project 2012with XYZ arhitektura

The eastern shoreline is a part of the most central space of Split. It is also space heavily burdened by traffic, comprising the main bus station, the main passanger railway station, an extensive ferry port and a cruise- -ship dock, as well as the city market, right next to the Roman city core.

This project suggests a transformation of the existing mess in the middle of the city into a continuity of green urban pedestrian spaces, connecting the very centre of the city and the popular Bacvice beach. 16 metre strips serve as an organizing module for the integration of the pedestrian paths and a huge traffic infrastructure underneath. The visible size of the infrastructure is mitigated by burrying the vehicular sorting and parking spaces underground, which allows the green of the central shoreline to pass right through, made possible by a reorganisation of traffic on a city-wide level.

urban plan tromostovlje

school project

4th year, 2007

spatial organisation model

models2008 - 2012with XYZ arhitektura

home for the elderly senj

competition model 2009

pressed cardboard

home for the elderly senj

development model 2011

PET sheet

home for the elderly senj

development model 2011

PET sheet

church square rijeka

2012

paper, XPS, PET foil

new cemetery zadar

2011

pressed cardboard, paper,

glass fragment tape

ill children care centre zagreb

detailed model 2012

foamed PVC sheet, PET sheet

ill children care centre zagreb

urban context model 2012

pressed cardboard, XPS

pastoral centre trogir

2011

foamed PVC sheet,

PVC pipes, PET foil

company headquarters zagreb

2011

foamed PVC sheet, PET foil,

paper-PUR sheet

national park entrance krka

2012

PET sheet, PUR foam,

EPS, glass fragment tape

elementary school popovaca

development model, 2009

foamed PVC sheet, PET foil,

paper-PUR sheet

awardswith XYZ arhitektura

Bosanka, urban planning competition l 3rd prize I Dubrovnik I 2011

Tradesmen Guild Business Complex, competition I 5th prize l Zagreb l 2010

Muller Hill, urban planning competition l 6th prize l Zagreb l 2010

Senj Nursing Home, competition l 1st prize l Senj l 2009

Kajzerica Educational Complex, competition l 2nd prize l Zagreb l 2008

with Helena Paver Njiric

Drava River Bank, international competition I 2nd prize l Maribor, Slovenia l 2010

other

Ministry of Education Scholarship for Academic Excellence l 2004 - 2010

Zagreb Film Festival l Palunko scriptwriting competition l 2nd prize I 2009

workshops2010 Restart Documentary Film Workshop l Zagreb

2009 Bauhaus Summer School l Dessau, Germany

2009 Palunko Scriptwriting Workshop l Zagreb

2008 Borongaj Campus Workshop l Zagreb

my other interestsinclude film, literature, writing, bicycling, traveling, food, languages, ...

XYZ arhitektura teamare Mia Roth Cerina, Tonci Cerina, Damir Mioc and Zvone Prlic version 080812

thank you